Port Dover

[kennyman]

Went fishing off the pier yesterday with my best bud (son Eric) and I'm telling you he is the "Gobymaster". He caught eight gobies yesterday. One was just huge for a goby, I bet eight or nine inches and lots of fin. Obviously none of them went back into the lake. We threw them on the roof of the small building located at the end of the pier (which got some strange looks LOL). I tried to explain to a couple others catching these rubbery little monsters,but nobody listened. I'm sure they thought I was evil and cruel. Oh well. I wonder how many bass etc. we just saved? Anyway,we were best friends to all the birds in the neighborhood. I swear that's all anyone was catching, except we saw one bluegill caught. Is this normal there now?

[carp-starter]

We threw them on the roof of the small building located at the end of the pier

 

Oh well. I wonder how many bass etc. we just saved?

 

So you are wondering how many bass you may have saved. How do you think gobies came to Canada and Lake St Clair that did not have any gobies? Does it have to be a freighter?

 

You just threw the gobies on the roof of a small building - eh? Any sea gulls around? So a sea gull grabs a goby and flies away with it to a pond or lake that does not yet have any gobies. If that goby is a female with eggs, that pond or lake may soon have baby gobies soon. I cannot tell you if this will happen because I do not know anything about the reproductive cycle of a goby. But if done at the right time of year, you may have a new lake with gobies.

 

Even just killing a goby and throwing it on the ground is not good enough. You need to get rid of it so that they cannot get transported to another body of water.

 

carp-starter

[tonyb]

Unless you specifically told the Goby with eggs to go screw itself, no another lake can't get infested

 

Tony

[carp-starter]

You are 100% correct tonyb - dead gobies cannot reproduce. But bobies just thrown out can even though it is very improbable.

 

I am blushing - thank you

 

carp-starter

[mikeymikey]

Not releasing gobies back to water is also recommended by the authorities too ?

(basically, catch & kill)?

 

Could you give me a quick info as to why goby should not go back to water? so just in case i have to explain to others that may be around me.

 

 

Thanks.

Edited May 22, 2007 by mikeymikey

[Steelcat]

Here's the website that talks about invasive species.Stop the invasive species

[kennyman]

Tony B .... thanks bud. Carp Starter, thanks for immediately climbing all over me for doing something I thought was correct.That post was written pretty aggressively for something basically incorrect,don't you think??? EVERYONE else was throwing them back in. Just trying to post here and keep people aware of the problem. It should be posted on a sign at every major pier. Mikey Mikey, here is a quote from the Great Lakes Institute "Along with the zebra mussel, the round-eyed goby, the Eurasian ruffle and the spiny and fishhook waterfleas are rewriting the book of life in the lakes. They are linked to the startling decline in walleye stocks, an expanding dead zone in the middle of Lake Erie, and the spread of disease that is killing tens of thousands of birds each year. For example, another native of the Black Sea, the round-eyed goby, is literally eating the future of bass stocks in the lakes.

 

The goby will eat as many bass eggs as it can, says Rob McIntosh, president of the St. Catharines Game and Fish Association. One goby will attack the bass and drive it off, while four or five others move in and eat the eggs.

 

In a few years, if this continues, you are going to see a real impact on the bass population. As it is now, we are finding it harder and harder to catch large fish"."For the last several years, merganser ducks, loons and some gulls have died by the thousands in Lake Erie after contracting a rare type of botulism.

 

Not much else feeds on the zebra mussels other than gobies, which are now one of the most abundant fish in the lakes and available to be fed upon by other fish and birds, says Ricciardi, who believes the type-E botulism itself may not be indigenous to the basin.

 

So the gobies act as a bio-accumulation link for the bacteria.

 

So whether the botulism was introduced or was always in the lake sediment, the point is without either one of these species, you wouldn't have this happening.

 

"

Here'another site that's pretty informative http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/7_31_99/fob1.htm . Here's a quote from that site "Government officials in Canada and the United States have launched campaigns to help boaters and anglers recognize the goby and prevent its transfer to new waters. In particular, Dermott emphasized, gobies should never be used as bait, transported live, or even returned to the waters from which they were caught.

Anyway, everyone reading this,don't put them back in the water. Whether you use them as bird food or fertilizer for your garden, please don't let them back into the water. I have an idea. why don't we feed gobies to cormorants ? P.S. as far as whipping the gobies on the roof, it made sense at the time. I didn't want to keep them in my pocket , I'm out on the pier with my son and we keep catching the darn things. I'm not going to pack up all my stuff, walk all the way down the pier everytime we catch one then go back and set up again. Even if I thought ahead,dumped them in a bag and threw them in the garbage, ten to one says the gulls would get them at the dump. Anyway,enough said.